{"id":100194,"date":"2025-05-09T18:25:45","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T22:25:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=100194"},"modified":"2025-05-09T18:26:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T22:26:14","slug":"blue-jays-jose-urena-spot-start-vs-mariners-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/05\/09\/blue-jays-jose-urena-spot-start-vs-mariners-sunday\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays Tap Veteran Ure\u00f1a for Spot Start Against Mariners Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"WaaZC\">\n<div class=\"RJPOee EIJn2\">\n<div class=\"zMgcWd dSKvsb\" data-il=\"\">\n<div data-crb-p=\"\">\n<div class=\"xFTqob\">\n<p class=\"vM0jzc\">The Toronto Blue Jays starting rotation has struggled this season, and newly signed Jos\u00e9 Ure\u00f1a now comes into the picture. Veteran starter <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/03\/29\/blue-jays-max-scherzer-leaves-game-right-lat-soreness\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Max Scherzer<\/a> has had to extend his time on the shelf (60-day IL), and will not be able to rejoin the team until late May. This has forced manager John Schneider to utilize Ure\u00f1a as a spot starter. According to Ben Nicholson-Smith, the 33-year-old will start against the division-leading AL West Seattle Mariners on Sunday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"message__5126c cozyMessage__5126c groupStart__5126c wrapper_c19a55 cozy_c19a55 zalgo_c19a55\" role=\"article\" data-list-item-id=\"chat-messages___chat-messages-1234850104515629097-1370221327557988373\" aria-labelledby=\"message-username-1370221327557988373 uid_1 message-content-1370221327557988373 uid_2 message-timestamp-1370221327557988373\">\n<div class=\"buttonContainer_c19a55\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Jose Urena will remain in Blue Jays\u2019 rotation and start Sunday per mgr John Schneider<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ben Nicholson-Smith (@bnicholsonsmith) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bnicholsonsmith\/status\/1920622173036700059?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 8, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"buttons__5126c container__040f0 isHeader__040f0\" role=\"group\" aria-label=\"Message Actions\"><strong>Ure\u00f1a Gets Spot Start Sunday for the Blue Jays Against the Mariners<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3>Blue Jays Rotation Options<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The still-healthy members of the Blue Jays rotation Jos\u00e9 Berr\u00edos, Kevin Gausman, and Chris Bassitt. Berr\u00edos started the season poorly giving up three home runs on his <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/03\/17\/blue-jays-jose-berrios-opening-day\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Opening Day nod<\/a>. He&#8217;s also had to pitch through a lot of jams. Overall, Bassitt and Gausman have been the two most consistent starters in the rotation. But the Blue Jays can&#8217;t rely on two starters to carry the whole team&#8217;s success. Minor league starter <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/03\/15\/blue-jays-prospect-jake-bloss-spring-training-development\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Jake Bloss<\/a> was next in line for a promotion. Unfortunately, the 23-year-old is dealing with an elbow injury. Bloss was placed on the seven-day injury list on Tuesday, which makes him unavailable for Sunday&#8217;s start. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This compels the Blue Jays to turn to Jos\u00e9 Ure\u00f1a. In his first game with the team on Tuesday, Ure\u00f1a pitched 4 1\/3 innings against the Los Angeles Angels, giving up two earned runs. However, struggles in the bullpen led to an 8-3 loss to the Angels.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Jose Urena in his Blue Jays debut :<\/p>\n<p>4.1 IP | 4 H | 2 R | 2 ER | 1 BB | 2 K<\/p>\n<p>74 pitches, 52 strikes <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/iVFpwPytAz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/iVFpwPytAz<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jays insight (@JaysInsight) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JaysInsight\/status\/1919952506462826801?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 7, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"buttons__5126c container__040f0 isHeader__040f0\" role=\"group\" aria-label=\"Message Actions\"><strong>Ure\u00f1a Needs to Make Adjustments\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Considering the Blue Jays are lacking starting pitching depth, Ure\u00f1a will get a shot at redeeming himself. All eyes will be on him on Sunday and it won&#8217;t be an easy assignment for a reliever who is sporting an 8.59 ERA this season across 7 1\/3 innings pitched. Ure\u00f1a will need to drastically change his approach on the mound if he wants his new team to beat the Mariners on Sunday.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One aspect of his pitching arsenal that he could rely on is his two-seam fastball. He&#8217;s demonstrated how it can be a powerful pitch that he can turn to. In his debut with the Blue Jays, he illustrated an effective changeup. All in all, the 33-year-old needs to pitch with confidence on the mound. This is a key trait that swingman Alek Manoah has lacked in his career. He will likely be watching from the Blue Jays dugout taking notes. This will be an important series for the Blue Jays as they play their first game of the series against the Mariners on Friday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"buttonContainer_c19a55\">\n<div class=\"buttons__5126c container__040f0\" role=\"group\" aria-label=\"Message Actions\">\n<div class=\"emoji emoji__040f0\" role=\"img\" data-type=\"emoji\" data-name=\"\ud83d\udc4d\" aria-label=\"\">Photo Credit: \u00a9 Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Toronto Blue Jays starting rotation has struggled this season, and newly signed Jos\u00e9 Ure\u00f1a now comes into the picture. Veteran starter Max Scherzer has had to extend his time on the shelf (60-day IL), and will not be able to rejoin the team until late May. This has forced manager John Schneider to utilize [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4831,"featured_media":100215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1071,35],"tags":[2650,28667,1669,79,158],"class_list":["post-100194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bluejays","category-mlb","category-news","tag-alek-manoah","tag-jake-bloss","tag-jose-urena","tag-max-scherzer","tag-seattle-mariners"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4831"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100194"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100217,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100194\/revisions\/100217"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}